One of the young fruit-growers and progressive
ranchers in Sonoma county is Henry Elphick, Jr., whose ranch of twenty
acres near Sebastopol shows the work of a master hand, for everything
about the place denotes that the owner is careful of details, the trees
of his orchard showing the best of care, as do also the residence and
ranch buildings.

Mr. Elphick takes pride in the fact that he is a
native son of the Golden State, and also that he is a sone of one of the
state's worthy pioneers, Henry Elphick. The latter was a resident of
Marin county, Cal., at the time of the birth of of his son in 1874, and
soon after that event he came to Sonoma county and near Sebastopol, at
Pleasant Hill, purchased and settled upon what proved under his care to
be one of the most profitable ranches in Sonoma county. Henry Elphick,
Jr., was a small child when his parents removed to Sonoma county, and
here his life has since been passed in the main, in his boyhood days
attending the schools of Sebastopol and later working on the homestead
ranch with his father. His first independent business venture was in
Santa Cruz, where he was interested in the fruit business for about six
years, after which he was interested in buying and subdividing land and
putting it on the market. This latter business was conducted near
Sebastopol, and consisted of buying large tracts of land, which he
subdivided, and after improving the property, sold at a good profit. A
number of pieces of property were thus handled, but he finally gave up
this business and devoted all of his time to ranching on the property on
which he now lives, which he purchased in 1906. Here he has twenty-four
acres of fruit land, mostly in apples, ten acres in bearing, and ten
acres in young trees which he set out himself since taking up his
residence here. From the trees in bearing he shipped during the season
of 1909 fifteen hundred boxes which brought $2,300, besides ten tons of
dried fruit. The ranch is equipped with an excellent drier, and thus he
is enabled to dry fruit for other parties not provided with driers,
thirty thousand tons being an average year's output from this source
alone. Besides his apple orchard, which includes Gravensteins,
Belleflowers, Spitzenbergs and Kings, he also has a number of cherry
trees that are good producers. As it now stands Mr. Elphick's ranch is
without doubt one of the most valuable ranches in Sonoma county, the
improvements alone amounting to over $4,000, and when the ten acres of
young trees come into bearing it will be and exceedingly valuable ranch
property, one of which the young owner may well be proud.

In 1900 Mr. Elphick was united in marriage with
Miss Birdie Briggs, a native of Santa Cruz. Politically Mr. Elphick is a
Republican, and fraternally he belongs to the Knights of Pythias,
holding membership in Santa Cruz Lodge. In addition to his valuable
ranch property near Sebastopol, Mr. Elphick also owns property in Santa
Cruz, Oakland and rich timber land in Sonoma county.

Source:History of Sonoma County, California
Biographical Sketches of The Leading Men and Women of the County Who
Have Been Identified With Its Growth and Development from the Early Days
to the Present
History By: Tom Gregory
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California (1911)